Tag Archives: UMKC

DeWayne Russell was this week’s top vote-getter, punching his ticket to the Final Four of the Player of the Year Fan Vote in the process.

CALGARY, Alta. — A pair of Final Fours have been cut down to just two, while another has just been formed.

There may only be one game left in the 2016-17 college basketball season, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of reasons to come out and support your favourite players from across the country.

The College Court Report Fan Voted awards are winding down themselves, but not before crowning winners of their own.

After another week of voting, the Player of the Year field has now been trimmed to just four players. Early on in the bracket-style tournament, front-runners were identified from each regional. This past week, players were looking to win their respective regional finals and advance to the Final Four.

Across the three voting platforms, a record 29,108 votes were cast for the eight student-athletes still alive in the battle for the title of Player of the Year.

LaVell Boyd (4) averaged 20.6 points and 7.0 assists per game over the last week, leading the UMKC Kangaroos to a 2-1 record over that span. (Source: UMKC Athletics) (Header Photo: UMKC Athletics)

Back in 2015-16, the UMKC Kangaroos entered the season with heightened expectations around the program.

With the likes of LaVell Boyd, who was in his first year with the program after transferring to UMKC from South Suburban College, and Martez Harrison, who was the 2015 WAC Player of the Year, leading the way, the ‘Roos were a trendy pick to win the conference title.

In the end, it wasn’t in the cards.

UMKC finished the 2015-16 season with a record of 12-19 overall, and 4-10 in conference play. It wasn’t the way they had hoped the year would go, but they seem to have put it all behind them.

The Kangaroos have opened the 2016-17 season with a 6-3 record, and have put together two separate winning streaks of three games to date.

Senior guard LaVell Boyd has been a big reason for the early-season success for the team. Amidst the suspension to Harrison, Boyd has become the offensive leader for UMKC.

This past week, Boyd helped lead the ‘Roos to a 2-1 record, averaging over 20 points per game over that span.

Dedrick Basile was the talk of the town last March when he hit a buzzer-beater t osend the Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners to the NCAA Tournament. (Source: Tom Pennington – Getty Images)

With the exhibition season in full swing, and coming to a close early this week, that can mean only one thing.

The 2016-17 college basketball regular season is just around the corner!

Things get underway Friday, November 11th at Noon EST with the first regular season game of the season, and there will be a plethora of talent on display across all 32 conferences all season long.

Before the season gets started, we decided to hand out some preseason hardware, in the form of our Conference Player of the Year award and All-Conference Teams.

Along with that, we have the College Court Report All-Americans, and the Mid-Major Player of the Year Preseason Watch List. Links to all of the conference awards and the Watch List can be found at the bottom of each article.

Martez Harrison, the reigning WAC Player of the Year, is back and ready to lead the UMKC Kangaroos towards another strong showing in the WAC in 2015-16.

Over the past few seasons, the WAC has been dominated by New Mexico State, and rightfully so. They have had talented players come through the program, and have been the best team in the conference.

Last season may have been the signal of a changing of the guard in the conference in the near future, no pun intended on the ‘guard’. While New Mexico State won the conference titles, it was UMKC’s star guard who took home WAC Player of the Year. Martez Harrison took home the award, a season after the Aggies’ Daniel Mullings won the hardware.

This season, UMKC will look to capitalize on having their star back for another go-round. The ‘Roos will look to build off their T-2nd place finish in the regular season standings, and build off one of their best seasons in recent memory. The big question will be whether or not they have the talent in place to knock the Aggies off atop the conference standings. Only time will tell.